Accessibility Hub - Building an Inclusive
and Accessible Community
June 2014 Quarterly Report on the Accessibility Hub
Prepared by:
Andrew Ashby – Accessibility Hub Coordinator and Adaptive Technologies Specialist, Adaptive Technology
Centre
For the Operational Review Committee
This document is available in alternate formats, upon request. Please contact us at 613-533-6000 Ext 75734 or
by email at accessibility.hub@queensu.ca
June 2014
Updates








Since October 2013, the Accessibility Hub has assisted 61 Queen’s departments and Kingston
organizations with accessibility issues;
The Accessibility Hub now houses the updated Web Standards and Accessibility Development Guide;
The Hub has secured an information table at SOAR’s Resource Fair this July;
City of Kingston intranet site (for city staff) is using accessibility information from the “Hub”;
George Brown College is going to model their accessibility information after the “Hub”;
“Accessibility at Western University” new website was modelled after the “Hub”;
Starting May 1, 2014, the Accessibility Hub Coordinator is 100% until August 31, 2014.
During May/June an “Accessibility Services Self-Study” was performed.
Education, Training and Awareness




Workshop – LibGuides and Website Accessibility. March 20, 2014 (20 participants)
Workshop - Accessible Documents and websites. March 21, 2014. (13 participants)
Accessible Information Training Workshop: Topic - Accessible documents, websites, captioning
videos. April 16, 2014 (5 participants)
Teaching & Learning Pages and Development of Accessible Online Videos, June 10, 2014 (30
participants)
Project Engagement
Website Accessibility
ITServices continues to carry out accessibility audits of all websites under the queensu.ca domain to ensure
compliance with Ontario Regulation 191/11, section 14. Inquiries are directed to the Accessibility Hub
Coordinator and ITServices on achieving Level A/AA accessibility on Queen’s websites. ITServices is also
offering workshops on the use of Site Improve.
Number of Inquiries to ITServices and
Accessibility Hub for the website
audits (Site Improve)
 March 2014: 1
 April 2014: 9
 May 2014: 17
Number of attendees per workshop



April: 1 session held on April 17 (10 people in
attendance)
1 session held on May 13 (10 people in attendance)
1 session (Faculty of Education) held on May 26 (9
people in attendance)
Service Requests
Highlights
Since March 7, 2014 the Accessibility Hub Coordinator has responded to 64 (60% increase over last quarter)
specific requests ranging from the simple to very complex. Including; built environment, video captioning, audio
transcripts, website and document accessibility, and accessible parking.
Success Examples
The following is a small snapshot of actual requests made to the Accessibility Hub Coordinator which were
resolved.
1. Issue: The Hub Coordinator and the ATC Coordinator were contacted by the International Centre for the
Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation (ICACBR). The ICACBR use several YouTube videos
1
embedded within course materials and have a student with a hearing impairment wishing to access
them. They required assistance with video captioning and audio transcription.
Solution: Discussed video captioning/audio transcripts and how to use MagPie for video captioning and
uploading to YouTube. Discussed the adaptive technology needs of ICACBR projects in Bangladesh
and The Hub and ATC Coordinators have been invited to Bangladesh to assess the
accessibility/technology needs of the project.
2. Issue: Contacted by a Queen’s Alumni because of a request from another institution that her
dissertation, posted on QSpace, be supplied in an accessible format for a student using adaptive
technology. The alumni thought an accessibility check should be part of the process of the School of
Graduate Studies for electronic submissions to QSpace.
Solution: The Hub Coordinator reviewed the SGS guidelines for electronic submissions to QSpace and
contacted the Thesis Coordinator. Suggested that the SGS website could provide links to the
Accessibility Hub for on the Information and Communications Standards of the AODA , creating
accessible Word/PDF documents, and an Accessibility Statement. The suggestions were forwarded to
the Director, Admissions and Student Services for review.
3. Issue: Contacted by a faculty member regarding adaptive technology speech-to-text software as a
workplace accommodation.
Solution: The Coordinator provided information, guidance, and expertise for this request.
4. Issue: Contacted by the Engineering & Science Library and the Humanities and Social Sciences Library
both wanting to develop accessible online newsletters.
Solution: The Coordinator trained staff on best practices for creating an accessible HTML newsletter,
developed an accessible HTML template, and entered the newsletter data (25 hours to complete). The
template conforms to WCAG Level AA. Engineering & Science Library Newsletter May 2014.
Website
Please note: stats are from March 7, 2014 to June 23, 2014.

4341 Visitors (45% increase over last quarter), viewing 10,204 pages (44% increase over last quarter).
Social Media


Accessibility Hub on Twitter @AccessHubQU – 1400 Tweets, 258 followers.
YouTube video - Melissa Vassallo on disability - Queen's Accessibility Hub - 390 views.
Moving Forward
The Accessibility Hub continues to have an impact by providing significant guidance and expertise for
accessibility issues, AODA compliance, workplace accommodations, website, and document accessibility to the
Queen’s community and persons with disabilities.
Video Captioning
During the last half of this quarter, I received 10 requests for information on video captioning from staff and
faculty. As awareness of AODA compliance grows, so will these requests, especially for videos used in LMS like
Moodle which contain 1000’s of uncaptioned videos. This quarter, 16 videos have been out-sourced (by ITS)
for captioning; totaling 58 videos so far in 2014. The Hub Coordinator is pursuing a purchase of Camtasia
software used to caption videos to better answer inquiries, assist with some captioning, and determine the time
involved to caption the average video.
Other universities like U. of T. use the Liberated Learning Consortium for captioning. Algonquin College uses
Camtasia Relay to record, caption, and upload lectures to their LMS (Black Board). Both of these options provide
80-90% accuracy of the spoken word so editing of final captions/transcripts is still required providing
opportunities for the Accessibility Hub. Could the “Hub” provide a fee-for-service captioning/editing service for
Queen’s and perhaps other colleges & universities? Could this fee-for-service also provide website and
document accessibility? This would offset operational costs to Queen’s and assist with AODA compliance.
2